Waggoner Family Christmas

Here are some photos from our Waggoner family Christmas (in no particular order). I notice they are a bit lopsided towards the kids (I think have more pics on another memory card somewhere so maybe we'll get the adults in on another post)...


Ellie poses with one of her favorite Christmas gifts. I think we played with it for over an hour alone today!

Micah's pleased with his new athletic wear

Here's the marble maze all set up (above)

One of Ellie's other favorite gifts. She asks to play by saying, "Hunnry Hunnry Hippo?" in a voice that you can't refuse. And if you ask if she's hungry, she takes it to mean that you want to play this game.

Caleb displays one of his gifts.

Leah shows off her personalized stocking

Josh waits his turn to open a present

Nonna with her granddaughters

Ellie got this 'fuzzy' (that's what we call 'em) in her stocking. She promptly named him "Bob." Funny, she's never named a doll baby, teddy bear, or any other toy for that matter.

Ellie sneaking in some sensory stimulation by flipping the pages of Aunt Rachel's book. She knows she's been caught. Some days I wonder if this habbit will ever break or if she'll do this forever. No paperback within her grasp is safe!

Monday's Visit to the Children's Discovery Museum

We arrived back in Kentucky this afternoon and I'm pretty wiped out from the travel but I wanted to share some more Illinois pics before crashing this evening... On Monday we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal and had a fun time taking Ellie from exhibit to exhibit. She seemed to really enjoy herself! I know we did!

Smiling at the end of the worm tunnel

This photo is kind of dark, but we thought this was fun. You put your hands on these brass plates with sensors that made the drum beat in rhythm with your pulse.


Ellie enjoyed the water table, playing with the vacuum tubes, riding in the tractor with Gjyshe, determining her weight in gallons of milk, and wearing her "doctor" coat in Medical World.



I know Ellie is out of focus, but her face is priceless.

Saying goodbye to Gigi this morning.

Introducing Elisha Carl Waggoner

Christmas Day in Green Valley

Els putting out cookies for Santa

A 21st Century Christmas... Skyping with the Shaws in VT

Ellie checks out her new cousin, Pippa

The Shaws

Els enjoying Gigi and a new Berenstain Bears book, one of her favorite Christmas gifts

"The" kid toy with the ominous text on the box which read, "Adult Assembly Required"

Visiting Grandpa and Grandma Ford

Merry Christmas!

Shaw Announcement

Here's a link to Pippa's first photo... and the formal announcement of her full name.

Winter Sunrise on the Prairie

This was taken through a window, hence the spots (sorry -- I still liked the image enough to include it)

The ice has been hanging on everything for days, but with temps in the single digits, it's not going anywhere soon! It's treacherous walking anywhere, or driving for that matter. We witnessed a one-car accident this afternoon where a lady took out a stop-sign. It was less than a half mile from Isaac and Rachel's and after a quick phone call, Isaac was on the spot with his big Dodge pick-up truck and a chain. In no time, the lady was on her way again!

'Tis good to be with family...

Here's the first batch of photos from Illinois...
The first set are from today's lunch at Isaac and Rachel's. They just moved this year to Washington (IL) from Columbus so it's a treat to be able to see them when we're in town! Their son Sam is just 3 months older than Ellie. Baby Caleb was born in May. Ellie thought he was a hoot!

Ellie with her second cousins, Caleb and Samuel

My cousin Rachel, her husband, Isaac, and their two boys... (thanks, Hannah, for taking this picture for us!)

I've never seen Ellie do this before! Is this what she'd be like if she had a brother???

Baby Caleb

Lunch yesterday at Stephen and Rachel's...

Baby Pippa Is Here!

We got the phone call late this afternoon! Baby Pippa arrived quite quickly! Bug called and reported that she (Pippa)'s been sleeping ever since her delivery. Everyone is doing well!

No Baby Yet...

We're in Illinois now! It's nice to be in the peace and quiet of the prairie (though I forgot how windy it can be here), crashing at Mom and Dad's. After a crazy week of tying up business in anticipation of going out of town, all the while fighting colds and helping a coughing little girl who wasn't sleeping through the night -- it was nice to go to bed at 8:00! It was sweet to hear Ellie and Nathan start snoring within seconds of each other and fall into my own cozy slumber.

It was short lived as the three of us have taken turns coughing and waking each other up. Yes, we're all under the weather right now. Poor Ellie seems to pick up any little bug at school... and then we fall prey to them as well. Perhaps next year her immune system will be stronger?

We arrived to an ice covered wonderland -- which has meant that as the wind has picked up through the night, the house gets pelleted by hundreds of little pieces of ice. We were just grateful to find the electricity on as I don't know what we would have done when we arrived -- crashed at Hannah's?

Now, to the title of the post... Mom and Dad are in Vermont with Bug, Seth and Tua. Baby Pippa is to come any day (she was due last Sunday) and every time the phone has rung, we've wondered if she was about to make her debut. Unfortunately, the family in VT is in the midst of much snowfall and since the hospital is about an hour away from Bridgewater Corners on a good day, Seth and Bug have spent the last couple of nights at a hotel in Lebanon to avoid any risk of not making it to the hospital in time...or not making it at all. So Bug and Seth are in Lebanon; Mom, Dad, & Tua are in Bridgwater; and the Waggoners are in Green Valley. We look forward to Hannah joining us tomorrow! We will keep you posted as to when we hear something!

In the mean time, we're raiding Mom and Dad's freezer, pantry, & collection of Brittish mysteries on DVD, and Ellie is having fun with Gigi's special set of toys, thinking it would be quite ironic if we're here a whole week and never see them!

Mom sent these photos from VT tonight:

(above) Bill & Cathy's (shot from Bug and Seth's house)

(above) I think that's Mom and Dad's Milan
(below) I betcha anything Dad took the photo below...

2 Years Ago Today...

... we threw a party at the Coldwater Orphanage in Vlora,
ate lunch one last time at the Hotel New York,
made one last trip to the court house and waited nervously over softdrinks at the cafe across the street for Alma to come out with the adoption decree,
drove back to the Coldwater Orphanage to change Ellie and bundle her up,
strapped her in for her first car seat ride...
and listened to her wail for the longest three hour drive of our lives.

We stopped only once in Vlashaj in the dark to change a messy diaper (which dad threw on Genti and Shpresa's front porch -- sorry, friends) and Mandi high tailed it the rest of the way into Tirana. I'll never forget how she not only stopped crying, but relaxed and I think even smiled when we laid her down on our bed in the quiet back bedroom of the 2nd floor guest apartment. Hearing her snore in the crib at the foot of our bed was the sweetest sound.

More news links

You can imagine my surprise when I went online tonight and found a Yahoo headline stating that my first boss outa college was picked for Obama's cabinet! Here's a link to the Washington Post article...

Congressman LaHood didn't run for re-election this term and I intended to thank him on the blog here for representing my home district well these past 12 years. He kept a pretty rigorous schedule traveling back to Illinois nearly every weekend and I assumed he was retiring from his seat to stay put at home in Peoria! I guess he's going to stick around DC a little longer!

Working in his DC office was an experience I think back on often, grateful I had the chance to intern in his office during a summer break in college and later work for him and with some great staffers from Illinois. Secretly I had been hoping that he might consider running as the Republican candidate for Governor to replace Blagojavich! I guess not!

Adoption Story Link

http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/626484.html

I encourage you to take a few minutes to read this story about the Haakes, a couple from our church who adopted a young special needs boy last year. It is written by Andy Olsen, another friend from church with Asbury ties who is a talented photographer and writer who along with his wife, Erika, have made numerous trips to Haiti and have some moving stories and images on their blog from their experiences. I read about the newspaper coverage on the Haake's blog (thanks, Google Reader!) so we stopped by Kroger on the way home from church and picked up a copy. You can imagine our surprise when we saw Kerwin's photo above the fold and the story monopolizing the Herald-Leader's front page! They also gave it a full 2-page spread in the A section! The story will continue in Monday's and Tuesday's papers. Andy has written a gripping account of their adoption journey (I thought 5 weeks in Albania was a long time) which you won't want to quit reading. Be sure to click on Kerwin's picture to link to a slideshow and see some of Andy's other images.

Pre-school Sounds Like Fun

Today's one of Ellie's teachers wrote:

12-12-08
The class went ice skating in the room. We put shaving cream on a mat and took off the kids' shoes and socks. Eliie had a wonderful time! At first she just wanted to watch. Once we got her going she loved it! It was a very active day. At the end you could tell she was tired. Great day. P. Russell

That explained the wet pants! And her request to take a nap.

Another Photographer in the Family!

Ellie and I are Nathan-less for the next couple of days. He left this morning for some meetings in IN so Ellie and I are enjoying some special time together. (We miss you, Babe!) I thought we might get a few photos of ourselves to send Nathan and it turned into a really fun, memorable moment to share with my daughter. The first batch are us laying on the bed, holding the camera above us (keep scrolling down for what unfolded)....

(above) The camera started to get heavy so I put it on the bed and we knelt on the floor.

Where did my daughter learn to do this?

She soon wasn't content to have her picture taken, but kept crawling up on the bed, looking through the viewfinder and saying in an adorable singsong voice, "SMILE!" to take MY picture! I didn't have to show her a thing! The girl even found the shutter button! AMAZING! (you wouldn't believe the number of adults who can't find that button)!

Here are some of the photos she took of me (I won't hold it against her that she hasn't gotten the knack of autofocus yet)

Not too bad for a three year old!

Yep, I let my daughter handle a Canon 40D (no way was she touching my baby, the 5D, though I think it's safe as I doubt she could lift it!)

I had to get some photos of her in action so I ran to get another camera-- it was so funny I wish I had a video camera handy. While I was gone she evidently snapped a few photos of our closet, which I found when dumping these pics to the computer. She was even trying to get Reagan into the act hollering, "Reagan! Smile!"

check out that right index finger -- right on the money. She's my girl!

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that Ellie would know what to do on the other side of the lens.

After all, she's spent two years watching me!